No Movement

[Chalkarts]

Is it plausible to make a character that just skips the movement powers altogether and just survives on Athletic Run/Sprint and temporary jet packs?

 

It would allow for some playing around with the pools some.  

 

Have you done this?  Do you have a favorite movement power/why that one?

[Doomguide2005]

It's more than plausible.  I regularly do it, though I am partial to grabbing Fly on a number of them.

[Chalkarts]

13 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

It's more than plausible.  I regularly do it, though I am partial to grabbing Fly on a number of them.

I'm thinking that I may take hover.  I figured out how to make it work thematically and that would be the only one I'd need once I boost the speed..

[The Chairman]

I only have a travel power on two characters: Fly. That is only because it thematically fits. All others just use Athletic Run, Sprint, and a Jetpack.

[WumpusRat]

56 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

Is it plausible to make a character that just skips the movement powers altogether and just survives on Athletic Run/Sprint and temporary jet packs?

 

It would allow for some playing around with the pools some.  

 

Have you done this?  Do you have a favorite movement power/why that one?

I have several characters who don't have a travel power pool.

Generally I don't take one if having some sort of super-travel doesn't fit the concept.

It's easy enough to get around with athletic run + sprint and the jet packs. And you can buy like 8 hours of jetpack for 50k, so it's cheap.

[Doomguide2005]

43 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

I'm thinking that I may take hover.  I figured out how to make it work thematically and that would be the only one I'd need once I boost the speed..

Generally I skip Hover and grab Air Superiority then follow with Evasive Maneuvers.  Fly+Evasive Maneuvers+Combat Jumping (i suspect it plays a role in the control) and I can zip around and stop on a dime.  No need for Hover.  But that's a me thing, nothing wrong with Hover

[cranebump]

I've done this with my "street level" heroes. You can definitely get by just fine with it.

[Luminara]

Hi, @Luminara here.  You may remember me from such posts as "How to get around with nothing but Hurdle", "There's only one badge in the game you can't reach without a travel power", and "Eating your teammates for fun and profit".

 

Oh.  Strike that last one.  Just ignore it.

 

Anyway, yes, you can play the entire game without any travel powers, and that includes temp travel powers.  Back on the original servers, almost all of my characters had only Hurdle for movement.  Prior to HC's addition of Infiltration to the Concealment pool, I was still building characters without travel powers.  My Staff/Willpower brute's movement speed was almost 65 mph.  No Athletic Run, no fly packs, nothing but Hurdle and +Movement Speed bonuses from IO sets.  Several of my current characters use Athletic Run/Hurdle/Combat Jumping simply because they felt fast enough.

 

I do recommend taking Combat Jumping, +Movement Speed bonuses from IO sets, and the +Jump and +Run base buffs.  None of them are necessary, but they're very appreciable additions to movement speed.  With all of the bells and whistles, and proper slotting, you can usually get up to ~72-75 mph Run and Jump Speeds.  That's easily fast enough for solo play, and usually fast enough for team play (there's always someone who needs to go AFK, or level up, or go shopping, or stop to have an argument in chat, or finish clearing the mission that no-one else wanted to stay in to clear, or whatever).

 

Know your way around zones.  Know your zone connections.  Know when to use an Ouroboros portal or LRTP.  And practice thing like wall sliding (Combat Jumping reduces friction, so just pressing against a slightly angled wall, like a War Wall, will rocket you up), window ledge hopping, things like that.  Run/Jump smart, not hard.

[Major_Decoy]

2 hours ago, Luminara said:

 "There's only one badge in the game you can't reach without a travel power"

What's that badge? I took a level 2 character to every zone to get at least one exploration badge in each zone using just sprint, but I didn't get every exploration badge in the game at that level. (If I'm being entirely honest, I don't think I've actually done on any character yet)

[Luminara]

10 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

What's that badge?

 

Top Dog.

[Major_Decoy]

16 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Top Dog.

Oh, okay. So you're counting Steam Jump as a travel power. I knew I couldn't get it with just Athletic Run and Sprint.

[MTeague]

The tricky thing with a Zero Travel Power character, is on teams, and in particular on Task Forces, it's important to be able to get from mission to mission in a timely manner. Now, that doesn't necessarily require travel powers, but you might want to make sure you have access to Base Teleports and/or Long Range Teleport, and at least a few Exploration Badges in each zone. 

 

If your character concept is not completely averse to it, things like the Starter Jetpack, and the Raptor Pack you get from the Atlas Park Safeguard/Mayhem mission, can really go a long way here, too. 

[Skyhawke]

Does Infiltration count as a travel power? If so, disregard. If not, it gives a nice boost to run and jump as well as some stealth without being grossly overpowered. 

[Andreah]

It's easy. Athletic Run and sprint together work great. Between those, the jetpack, and the mission teleporter/team transporter, life will be good.

[mistagoat]

Don't sleep on the temp Jump Pack you get from the Kings Row Bank job, it's discount super jump for 2 hours and its faster than the flight packs.

[MonteCarla]

I've gone this route for a number of characters.

It reminds me of Champions Online's Acrobatics travel power, which combined Speed and Jumping without being as good as either, but did the job nicely.

Only here it's completely free!

 

Oh, I'm also using Prestige Power Slide and Athletic Run with a Path Aura for ice slides for my Ice/Ice blaster Zero Kay. And loving it!

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

Does Infiltration count as a travel power? If so, disregard. If not, it gives a nice boost to run and jump as well as some stealth without being grossly overpowered. 

 

I have a couple of Blasters that use Infiltration as their only travel power. Blasters are the only AT where a couple of primary/secondary combos aligned such that no other travel power worked as well for the build and concept... because I was going to leverage the Concealment pool anyway and I was going to run out of pool choices.

[Andreah]

If you're okay with dipping into the travel pools without taking the travel powers, Combat Jumping is good to get; it pairs very nicely with Sprint and Athletic Run.

[skoryy]

17 hours ago, Chalkarts said:

Is it plausible to make a character that just skips the movement powers altogether and just survives on Athletic Run/Sprint and temporary jet packs?

 

It would allow for some playing around with the pools some.  

 

Have you done this?  Do you have a favorite movement power/why that one?

 

Yep, my ninja is just a natural origin ninja, so no fancy travel powers.  So, he's sprint, athletic run, jet packs, and the rocket surfboard for when it's easier to travel by flying.

[Chance Jackson]

18 hours ago, Chalkarts said:

Is it plausible to make a character that just skips the movement powers altogether and just survives on Athletic Run/Sprint and temporary jet packs?

 

It would allow for some playing around with the pools some.  

 

Have you done this?  Do you have a favorite movement power/why that one?

All but 1 of my characters does that, ninja run & a jet pack will get you anywhere you want to go 

Edited Monday at 04:19 PM by Chance Jackson

[Jacke]

As virtually all builds that improve survivability without sacrificing that much damage are very tight (especially the limit of 4 Power Pools), many of my Toons only use Inherent and S.T.A.R.T. Powers for travel.

• Sprint or one of the Prestige Sprints (I like Prestige Power Surge with a L15 Celerity Stealth Proc).
• Athletic Run (rarely Ninja Run, not yet Beast Run) for running and jumping.
• These 2 Powers (and the similar ones) are Temp Powers (some without a duration) that work in any Zone or Map except PvP Zones.
  • Void Skiff (rarely Flying Carpet, not yet Rocket Board) for flying without interacting or attacking others.
  • Holiday Rocket Pack for 5 hours (I have fond memories of the Winter Event 30-day Holiday Rocket Pack) for flying and fighting.
• For PvP zones, I get the Arena Temp Travel Powers (vendors in each PvP Zone too) to get the Badges up on high.

 

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

I will often take something like Hover or Combat Jumping but then forgo the faster travel powers in favour of the temp powers. 

 

That's not necessarily because I eschew them, but more because there are usually better powers available that I'd prefer in my attack chain.

 

Not always the best strategy I admit but hey... 

[Demobot]

I went without travel powers on my Night Widow and her run speed is near 80 mph, which is plenty fast for most things, and temporary jet packs and jump packs are easy to get if heights are an issue. 

[Snarky]

This will help with movement 

[Techwright]

On 8/17/2025 at 6:09 PM, Chalkarts said:

 Do you have a favorite movement power/why that one?

 

Mighty leap.  I take it as a standard unless a character has a clear reason for a flight power.  I do so because of the tagalong, Takeoff.  Takeoff gives a good knockdown AoE stomp which for squishies is very useful for buying a precious few seconds to disengage, when the whole gang of opponents descends upon you like a Philadelphian tackles a cheesesteak.     I've also found Takeoff quite useful as a second stomp for my tanks to keep the enemy off balance while my primary stomp recharges.

 

Hover would probably be second on my list.  I use it often for controlled aerial attacks from my range strikers, and it was a pretty good partner ability for the vertical stuff the one time I took super speed.